Benefit Management

Last year, a federal District Court in Texas temporarily blocked the 2016 changes to the Federal Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA) overtime rule from taking effect, pending further review. The blocked overtime rule, which would have applied to the executive, administrative and professional exemptions to the FLSA’s overtime requirements, was previously scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016.

On August 31, 2017, the Court issued a final decision, which struck down the previously stated changes to the FLSA overtime rule.

The rule, in its original state, would have nearly doubled the current salary threshold from $23,360 to $47,476, meaning a significant increase in all workers eligible for mandatory overtime pay. Estimates put this change equal to nearly 5 million currently exempt employees eligible nationwide.

On August 31, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in the Eastern District of Texas said the salary level was set so high that it could sweep in some management workers who are supposed to be exempt from overtime protections, according to Reuters.

The Court’s ruling provides clarity and relief to employers everywhere. But employers still need to remain vigilant in supervising their employees’ overtime activity. Employers must continue to evaluate the FLSA status of their employees by reviewing job descriptions to ensure their employees are classified properly.

A substantial proportion of individuals in the United States struggle with understanding the constantly evolving healthcare landscape. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 77% of adults have basic or below basic health literacy, with only 12% of adults having proficient healthcare literacy. Healthcare literacy spans the scope of not only understanding healthcare but also an understanding of medical terms, how the body works, how to make healthcare decisions and more.

As more and more employers are working with millennial workforces, it’s important for employers to understand their role in helping employees understand their benefit packages being offered so employees are armed with all the information needed to make the best decision for them and their families. According to Transamerica Center for Health Studies’ (TCHS) executive director Hector De La Torre, many millennials don’t understand how health insurance works. A recent TCHS survey found that feeling uninformed about options is the biggest barrier to health insurance for uninsured Millennials, contributing to 11 percent going without.

InfinityHR developed a Healthcare Glossary for employers to use in their internal communications, on their employee portals and during open enrollment time to help bridge the gap between proficiency around making informed health insurance decisions.

Effective communication and optimal enrollment processes are critical for employees to fully understand their benefits options. This is especially important for millennials as younger employees feel the least confident in their benefits decisions. While millennials are the most tech-savvy generation, the majority of them value one-on-one consultations with a benefits expert.

Employers are starting to diversify their decision-support approach with millennials and not just rely on online support tools to provide the individualized support they seek. One-on-one
consultations, in-person meetings, and workshops are just some of the ways for employers reach younger workers.

Employers have a unique role in helping employees from all generations navigate their choices. This will help businesses maintain strong loyalty among employees and continue to attract
top talent in 2017 and beyond.

To learn more about optimizing enrollment support and other benefits trends, fill out the short form below to get immediate access to our Benefits Trends whitepaper.

Attracting top talent with competitive benefits will always be a top priority for employers. With millennials overtaking Generation X as the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, employers will have to become more creative and versatile. It will be important to customize packages that meet non-traditional needs and leverage new technology.

One important trend to consider in this new environment is providing employees better benefits education.

The best benefits package can be rendered meaningless if employees don’t understand or take advantage of their options. There’s a real need for education, especially among younger workers.

52 percent of millennials understood life insurance

38 percent understood long-term disability insurance and

Only 7 percent had a full understanding of basic insurance concepts, such as premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance

For employers, this is a significant opportunity to evolve into a more consultative role and provide meaningful education and training for employees. This will not only maximize the value of benefits, but also generate loyalty among employees.

To learn more about educating your employees and other benefits trends, fill out the short form below to get immediate access to our Benefits Trends whitepaper.

Attracting top talent with competitive benefits will always be a top priority for employers. In the past, an appealing package may have included just retirement and health insurance. Today, with millennials overtaking Generation X as the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, employers will have to become more creative and versatile. It will be important to customize packages that meet non-traditional needs and leverage new technology.

One important trend to consider in this new environment is offering voluntary benefits.

An Aflac Workforces Report found that 88 percent of employees see voluntary benefits as part of a comprehensive benefits package. Employees often pay for them through payroll deferral making them an attractive low-cost option for employers. Traditional examples include life insurance, vision, dental, disability, and accident insurance. These days, voluntary benefits are stepping outside of the box.

For example, pet insurance is one of the fastest growing voluntary benefits. Some employers are addressing generational differences by offering other benefits, such as financial planning and career development,in addition to student-debt programs. The availability of voluntary benefits can have a profound impact on employees and employers alike. The Aflac study found that employees with voluntary benefits were 19 percent more likely to be satisfied with their job and 14 percent less likely to look for another one. Employees with voluntary benefits also felt more confident about their financial future, a chief concern for millennials. In the end, having a menu of voluntary benefits can provide a low-cost boost to employee morale.

To learn more about this and other benefits trends, fill out the short form below to get immediate access.

Changing workforce demographics and innovative technologies are quickly reshaping the benefits employees need. In addition, if employees fully understand their benefits options, they’ll make better purchasing decisions and in turn, decrease their financial stress. Employers have a unique role in helping employees from all generations navigate their choices. This will help businesses maintain strong loyalty among employees and continue to attract top talent in 2017 and beyond.

Key Takeaways:

How to strike the right benefits balance with multiple generations in the workforce

How voluntary benefits are used as a strategy to customize benefits packages

How Telemedicine could have a big impact on benefits savings for employers

How effective communication and optimal enrollment processes are critical for employees to fully understand their benefits options

Are you keeping benefits data in your HR system? While there are advantages to storing this data, there are dangers too. If you are considering adding benefits data to your HRMS or already have it stored, here are some things to keep in mind.

Benefits data, or data needed to support benefits processes, can include employee enrollment in medical, dental, life insurance and/or similar plans. It also includes sensitive data that are tied to each employee, such as social security number, date of birth, the employee’s full name and home address. If a health plan includes dependents, similar data will be required from these individuals as well. Such a collection of data associated with an employee can become a target for those with malicious intent or those seeking to perform identify theft.

HRMS systems play an important role in storing this data, but it requires additional security to protect the data from being exposed. One of the first things to ask is if you have a business reason to store the data that you are keeping. For example, if none of your vendors or processes need a dependent’s social security number, then it’s best not to store that data in the first place. It’s also healthy to review your outgoing interfaces annually. Question your vendors to confirm that the data on your interfaces is needed for their processes. Finally, consider carefully who has access to this data. If a member of the HR department is not using this data in their everyday work, then best practice is to remove the access.

Benefits data can be complicated, but if you keep it secure, holding it will provide advantages for your business.

Benefits management technology has become a required feature of the HRMS. Regardless of your company size, the options, information and money it takes to implement benefits management technology is a significant undertaking. How can you ensure you are making the right decision in choosing a vendor for your benefits software? Follow these tips in helping to make the best choice in HRMS vendors:

How does your system integrate data?Benefits data can be spread throughout numerous channels within an organization – from various spreadsheets, other databases and paper files. The HRMS benefit management module must be able to gather all of those pieces of information together, as well as automate it, without the need of manual involvement.

Where is my benefits data being kept?Benefit data is extremely confidential and security of this data is a major item that needs to be addressed. If the data is stored in the cloud, how secure is it and where is it being held? Regardless of where the data is store, strict security arrangements should be in place. Ask your potential vendor about this and ensure you are very comfortable in the answers they provide.

What does the benefit statement look like?Is the benefit statement simple to understand and does it contain all of the necessary information to keep your employees informed? Employee buy-in is a critical part of how the system is viewed.

How does the vendor deal with specific policies or rules of your organization?Every company has its own set of policies and if the vendor is not adaptable, changing the way you handle procedures may not be a good use of your time.

Who owns the data?The HRMS holds personal data about employees such as home […]

Benefits management is a core HR function and if your HR team, whether internal or external resources, aren’t cutting it, this can be a huge de-motivator for employees. Employees don’t generally get super enthusiastic and motivated if benefits are managed well, but they will notice and become demotivated if they are managed badly.

What’s the solution? Given that the majority of organizations have some form of benefits automation, having the best possible HRMS benefits module offers the following advantages:

Timely and Quality CommunicationFor benefits Open Enrollment and management, informing your employee of their choices and options is critical. While this is still mainly done via email and face-to-face presentations, integrated social HRMS is being used more often. Employees are looking for communication, such as podcasts, web-based videos and online chat rooms and forums. Not only does HRMS benefit management offer more interactive communications with employees, it leads to better-informed decisions.

Generation X, Y, Z & BeyondFor the first time in employment history, we’re seeing up to four generations in the workplace, each with varying values, drivers and demands when it comes to their careers and rewards packages. As the variety of benefits expands, more sophisticated and flexible solutions within modern HRMS software are needed to manage them.

Employee Engagement and Self-Service
A key factor in engagement levels is whether the employee feels appropriately rewarded for their work. During a period when pure salary increases appear to be a thing of the past, it’s important that HR departments understand how their benefits contribute to their total rewards package. Modern HRMS benefits modules, such as the InfinityHR system, provides toward rewards statements’ anywhere, anytime via the employee self-service functionality. The capability to not only access this important data, but to do so […]

The InfinityHR Benefits Management module provides administrators the ability to oversee benefits and apply deductions to employee records along with the capability to allow employee input on these elections.

Administrators are able to create, delete and process employees for benefits generated within any package through eligibility rules. Employees can manage their own accounts and select benefits for themselves through change events or automatic enrollment, depending on the configuration of the event and the benefits within that event. These elections may require administrator approval or be sent to carriers for enrollment and coverage. An account by default has access to the benefits management module and will accommodate benefits with premiums, credits or age-banded deductions.

Key Features of the Benefits Management Module:

Connects employees, administrators, carriers and payroll through one central system that can be accessed anytime via the Web.